The invention relates to an apparatus for taking-off fibre material from textile fibre bales of spinning material, for example cotton, synthetic fibres and the like, by means of a stripping apparatus or the like, wherein a tower, which can be moved to and fro in relation to the fibre material by means of a carriage, which has a travel motor or the like, has at least one boom, which is provided with the stripping apparatus and which extends in a transverse direction to the direction of movement, and the boom together with the take-off apparatus can be moved in the height direction of the tower by means of a lifting motor or the like.
In a known apparatus (DE-A- 37 22 317), the take-off apparatus is provided with sensors which register the distance of the take-off apparatus from a wall or the like where the row of bales terminates. Control lines lead to a switch-over device or to a control unit by means of which the take-off apparatus can be reversed at the end of the movement of the take-off apparatus. The sensors are proximity sensors which initiate the slowing-down or reversal procedure in good time before the wall is reached. Using those sensors it is not possible to ascertain the location of the carriage exactly. In addition, it is disadvantageous that the sensors have to act over a relatively large distance in the horizontal direction in order that the travel speed of the heavy machine resulting from the substantial weight of the carriage and the tower together with the boom, for example 2.8 tonnes, can be reliably slowed down in good time without damage. A sensor that acts in the height direction is not provided because neither a slowing-down procedure nor a reversal procedure is carried out in the height direction.
It is an aim of the invention to provide an apparatus of the kind described at the beginning that avoids or mitigates the mentioned disadvantages and that especially makes possible, by simple means, a substantially exact determination of location in the length and/or height direction.